The gambler
Readers rate it 3.8 (331 on Hardcover)
188 pages · Released 2003 · Modern Library
Content report card
The gambler parent’s guide: what’s inside
LGBTQ+ themes
What it offers
Positive role models
A note for parents
This is a psychological novella exploring obsession, moral degradation, and compulsive gambling through an unreliable narrator. The content is primarily internal—depicting the protagonist's mental unraveling—rather than external action, but it deals with adult themes including sexual coercion, financial desperation, and emotional manipulation. It's a serious literary work best suited to older teens or adults capable of engaging with morally complex characters and psychological distress.
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From the publisher
The Gambler (Russian: Игрокъ, romanized: Igrok; modern spelling Игрок) is a short novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky about a young tutor in the employment of a formerly wealthy Russian general. The novella reflects Dostoevsky's own addiction to roulette, which was in more ways than one the inspiration for the book: Dostoevsky... The Gambler (Russian: Игрокъ, romanized: Igrok; modern spelling Игрок) is a short novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky about a young tutor in the employment of a formerly wealthy Russian general. The novella reflects Dostoevsky's own addiction to roulette, which was in more ways than one the inspiration for the book: Dostoevsky completed the novella in 1866 under a strict deadline to pay off gambling debts.
Shelved under
- Translations into English
- Continental european fiction (fictional works by one author)
- Gamblers
- Fiction
- Compulsive gamblers
- Fiction, action & adventure
- Fiction, general
- Germany, fiction
- Psychological fiction
- Gamblers -- Fiction
- Gambling -- Fiction
- Families -- Fiction
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ISBN 9780812966930 · Modern Library